LL. D Dana James Dwight, an American geologist and mineralogist, born at Utica, N. Y., Feb. 12, 1813. He graduated at Yale college in 1833, where he evinced an especial love for the natural sciences and mathematics. He soon after received the appointment of teacher of mathematics to midshipmen in the United States navy, and sailed to the Mediterranean, returning in 1835. During the two years following he acted at Yale college as assistant to Prof. Silliman, whose successor he ultimately became. In 1837 he published "A System of Mineralogy," a work of high repute in Europe and America (5th ed., revised and enlarged, 1870). In December, 1836, he was appointed mineralogist and geologist of the United States exploring expedition, then about to be sent to the Southern and Pacific oceans. The squadron, under command of Lieut. Wilkes, sailed in August, 1838, and returned in 1842. During the 13 years following, Mr. Dana was engaged in preparing for publication the various reports of this expedition committed to his charge, and in other scientific pursuits.

The results of his labors were given in his "Report on Zoophytes" (4to, with an atlas of 61 folio plates, 1846), in which he proposes a new classification, and describes 230 new species; the "Report on the Geology of the Pacific" (with an atlas of 21 plates, 1849); and the " Report on Crustacea" (4to, 1,620 pages, with an atlas of 96 folio plates, 1852-4). In this last named work 680 species are described, of which 658 were new. These reports were published by the government. With few exceptions, the drawings in the atlases were made by Mr. Dana himself. A series of four articles by him entitled "Science and the Bible," called forth by a work of Prof. Tayler Lewis on the "Six Days of Creation," appeared in the "Bibliotheca Sacra" in 1856-'7. Soon after Prof. Silliman's resignation of the chair of chemistry and geology in Yale college, Mr. Dana entered in 1855 on the duties of the office of Silliman professor of natural history and geology, to which place he had been elected in 1850, and which he still retains.

In 1854 he was elected president of the American association for the advancement of science, having been for many years one of the standing committee of that body, and in August, 1855, he delivered the annual address before that association at its meeting in Providence. He has also published a "Manual of Geology" (1863), a "Text Book of Geology for Schools and Academies" (1864), and " Corals and Coral Islands" (1872). For many years he has been associated with his brother-in-law Prof. Benjamin Silliman, jr., as editor and publisher of the "American Journal of Science and Arts," founded in 1819 by the elder Silliman. To this journal, as well as to the proceedings of the American academy of arts and sciences in Boston, the lyceum of natural history of New York, and the academy of natural sciences of Philadelphia, Prof. Dana has contributed various important scientific memoirs. He has been elected a member of many learned societies in Europe, including the royal academies of sciences in Berlin and Munich, the geological and Linnsean societies in London, the philomathic society in Paris, and others.

In 1872 the Wol-laston gold medal, in charge of the geological society of London, was conferred upon him.